A massive group of illegal Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian farmers while working on their lands that are close to an illegal settlement post near Bethlehem in the southern part of the West Bank on Friday morning.
Sources told IMEMC that a small Israeli police were at the scene, when settlers attacked the farmers with rifle buts and batons, police officers tried to move the settlers away, settlers attacked and assaulted the police officers.
During the week the civil administration office of the Israeli army announced this settlement, which is built on lands belongs to farmers from the village of Al Khadier near Bethlehem city, as illegal under the Israeli settlement law and need to be evacuated. According to international and UN laws all settlements built in the West Bank is illegal due to the fact that is built on occupied land.
The land where the illegal outpost is located is the centre of a complex situation. Recently, the Israeli settler named Hanan, who started the outpost, was charged with the attempted armed robbery of a bank in Israel. The Israeli court sentenced him to 8 years in prison, 6 of which he has served. However, the convict suggested to the court that he ‘imprison’ himself for the remaining two years in an illegal settlement outpost on Palestinian land instead.
Bizarrely, the court agreed, and Hanan is presently occupying an illegal outpost on the agricultural land of Palestinian farmers near the Al Khadier village. The criminal also started to enlarge the illegal out post by taking over nearby Palestinian farm lands.
Apparently today a massive group of rightwing illegal settlers from nearby illegal settlements came to his aid and attacked Palestinian farmers and Israeli police officers who are their most of the time to protect the settlers.
